Dad tricks kid into thinking Ewoks are real

Can you find the Ewok in the photo above? Look closely. I promise you, it’s there.

“Find the Ewok” is a game that a California dad likes to play with his daughter. When Anthony Herrera and his daughter took a trip to Sequoia National Park he told her that Ewoks live amongst the tall trees. (Herrera is a self-described Star Wars geek and so is his daughter.)

Turns out that the young Herrera took her father seriously and spent most of her time in the park looking for the fuzzy teddy-bear-like creatures, which first appeared in Return of the Jedi. Herrera told his daughter that Ewoks are very shy and hard to spot, but she was a little disappointed that she never saw one.

And so Herrera, who is a graphic designer, used PhotoShop to insert Ewoks into the vacation photos, and showed them to his daughter.

“I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image,” Herrera writes in his blog. “You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn’t see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother.”

Herrera adds, “Maybe I’m a little wrong for lying to her and falsifying the pictures, but I don’t care.”

Herrera brings up a rather controversial point here. Parents always teach their kids that honesty is the best policy, and so are they sending their kids mixed messages when they lie to their children about magical people and creatures such as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Ewoks living in the trees? Do kids suffer emotional trauma when they realize their parents lied? Do they grow into “liars” themselves?

Over at Gizmodo, a reporter wrote about Herrera and most readers felt the photos were harmless but some felt he wronged his daughter by lying to her.

One reader wrote in: “Lying is wrong. It may be relatively harmless in certain circumstances but that doesn’t change the inherent nature of being untruthful…The relationship between parent and child is meant to be built on mutual trust and respect.”

Another writes: I hardly think parents need to lie to their children in order for them to find wonder and joy in the world. I mean, you can engage in imaginative play with your children without setting them up for what could be serious emotional trauma.”

Serious emotional trauma? Gimme a break. It’s hard for me to believe that this father who has a great sense of humor and who is obviously fully involved with his daughter is going to scar her for life. I have a feeling this is something that they’ll look back on and laugh about.

And when it comes to Santa Claus, I’m fully in favor of perpetuating the myth and putting a few gifts in the stockings on Christmas morning. But when my kids begin to become suspicious and ask me upfront, “Is he real?” that’s when I feel lying is inappropriate and the truth needs to be shared.